


When A Door Closes

by TimeCloneMike



Category: Undertale (Video Game), undertale fandom
Genre: BittyBones, Communication Issues, Ebott's Wake AU, Gen, High Quality Rips, Not Even The Weirdest Thing To Happen That Day, The Distant Future of 2018, cross post, dimensional rifts, magic use, reference, time skip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-09-20 13:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17023770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimeCloneMike/pseuds/TimeCloneMike
Summary: Dimensional rifts are not uncommon in Ebott's Wake. In fact they happen often enough that they are included in both the weather and traffic reports on the local radio station. Bewildered travelers from other worlds drop in often enough that there are helpful signs and waystations all over the town and just outside of it. Like the appearance of monsters and the rediscovery of magic, the fantastic has become mundane.Having said all that, a tiny bitey skeleton monster showing up in a mechanic's garage is still noteworthy.





	1. Tilting at Windmills

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [this comic](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/440832) by blehbybleh. 



It couldn’t end like this. Not after so many close calls and near misses. But it was hard to argue in the face of hard facts and cold logic.

Hal punched the ground and snarled some sort of profanity that transcended language, being anger without the tedious, paltry limits of English. The windmill stood proud, ignoring his anger just as it had ignored his mechanical skills, not to mention the wind.

“…one of these days. I will defeat you, once and for-”

Hal’s declaration was interrupted by a resounding crash.

“-and for all,” the mechanic finished, turning back towards the garage.

Abruptly, he stopped.

Just as abruptly, he broke into a sprint.

The crash of metal on metal was hardly out of the ordinary at the Greene Machines Garage, Gas Station, and Mini Golf. But with that noise subsiding, Hal could hear other noises as well. Some sort of screeching that might have also included words.

More importantly, there was the static-laden sound of a Dimensional Rift.

Hal slammed through several doors until he made it to the garage, and stared at the chaos that had intruded on his own personal chaos. Cardboard boxes. Wood. Clear plastic hinges. Drywall. What looked like pet food and dishes and toys.

Also there was a massive rift that had connected his garage with some other universe. That had become a key feature of the room.

“What the fuck?? Hey, is anyone in there? Helloooo?!”

The light from the garage seemed to be shining through the rift, illuminating what looked like a store in mall. There didn’t seem to be any lights turned on in the store, and the natural light of the rift didn’t do much.

“Hey, if anyone can hear me, just stay calm! These rifts only last like a minute tops! Just don’t go near them-”

Slowly, the rift started to shrink, then rapidly contracted to a point and vanished completely.

“…well, that figures.”

Slowly Hal began to sort through the wreckage, stacking it up and fishing his tools out of the chaos… until he heart some sort of whining, grunting noise.

“…this _also_ figures.”

Hal shook his head and continued to sort through the wreckage, shifting his focus towards the larger pieces of debris in case there was anyone buried underneath them. The noises continued, but Hal appeared to pay them no mind.

After a minute, the noises stopped, and a few moments after that, Hal heard the faucet turn on elsewhere in the building.

“There we go.”

The last bit of debris was stacked up, and Hal made his way through the rest of the building, triangulating to the sound of the faucet in the staff restroom. The room was empty, but the light was on and the sink had been left running.

“…alright then.” Hal turned off the tap and made his way through the rest of the building, systematically following noises until he got to a mini-fridge. Back lit by the small light inside, he could make out a small figure that looked somewhat skeletal in nature, making noises as they seemed to be jamming some sort of snack into their mouth.

“There you are-”

The figure spun around, and Hal noticed three things in succession.

First, it was definitely some sort of skeleton, although shorter than any he had ever seen. Either native to Ebott’s Wake, or visiting from another universe.

Second, it had some sort of Hannibal Lecter style mask strapped on, one that was now smeared with chocolate as it tried to jam a candy bar through the gaps into its mouth.

Third, it looked scared as hell, between the shaking and the tears coming out of its eye sockets.

“Well.” Hal shrugged. “This is awkward. Hey, just to double check, can you understand me?”

The short skeleton didn’t make any sort of indication that it did. Then again, it might have been too busy being scared witless to respond.

“Hmmm. Hold still for a minute. I might regret this in the future but that happens every damned day.” Hal held up his right hand, which started to glow with an orange light… along with the mechanic’s eyes. He snapped his fingers, and the strap holding the mask in place fell apart at one corner, clattering to the floor.

“That should make it easier to eat, drink, clean up, the whole nine yards.” The orange light faded away, and Hal pointed down the hallway. “I gotta go finish putting my tools back. Help yourself to anything in the fridge. Like you were already doing… that sounded better in my head.”

Hal walked away, reaching into his pocket to pull out a smartphone.

“…come on, come on… pick up- hey Joe. Hey, I have a purely hypothetical question with no bearing on physical reality. You know that policy on establishing contact with universes that connect with the rifts? What are the hard limits on that again? …look, can you answer the question before we get into the details of whatever I have and have not done today?! …uh huh. All right. That’s what I needed to know. I ask because I think a rift opened in my garage while I was working on the windmill again, and based on what got dumped in here and what I saw before it closed, I think it was some sort of pet shop or animal shelter or something. Only I’m not a hundred percent sure that they were offering cats and dogs and bunny rabbits. Or if they were…”

Hal turned back down the hallway to see the short skeleton peering around the corner at him, then retreating back behind the corner.

“Maybe they weren’t the kind of cats and dogs and bunnies that we would consider legal to sell, or whatever it was they were doing… well, yeah. That’s why I called. Also, is there anyone at the lab who knows anything about crossing communication barriers with magic? …I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking… I know. If push comes to shove I can call Azzy or Chara, but I don’t want to bother them during exams, that’s all… okay. Thanks for the input. You have a spare key, so you can let yourself in to scan the garage for whatever it is you need to find. See you on Thursday. Bye.”

Hal ended the call and turned to see the skeleton peering at him from around the corner again.

“Well, my short skeletal guest… I have good news and bad news. The bad news is it doesn’t look like you get to go home. The good news, though, is that it looks like you don’t _have_ to go home.”


	2. Checking Up and Checking In

The tall skeleton monster stared at the much, much shorter skeleton monster that was peeking out from behind human legs.

“…what the fuck?”

“Yeah, I kinda figured you were going to say that.”

Dr. Aster narrowed his eye sockets and held up one hand, and the smaller skeleton tried to hide behind Hal again.

“Not the most social type, is he?”

Hal pointed at the debris in the corner of the garage, where Joe was waving some sort of scanner.

“I’m no scientist but I get the impression that wherever this guy comes from, that wasn’t a terribly high priority on the old hierarchy of needs.”

“Right.” Dr. Aster sighed and purple light started to glow from the holes in the middle of his hand. A beam passed over the small skeleton several times, prompting a sort of cry of distress, and the beam cut off abruptly as the little skeleton sprinted towards a pile of boxes that used to hold transmission and brake fluid, taking cover behind the cardboard barrier.

“Is he okay?”

“He should be. That was just a simple scan… has he said anything?”

“Nothing I can understand. I don’t know if it’s a language barrier across the timelines, or if he was never taught, or if that big hole in his skull meant he has amnesia, or if he can talk and understand me just fine but he’s too damned scared to actually tip his hand. Sign language is a no-go, I’ve tested that a few times.”

“Hmmmm.” Dr. Aster tapped his teeth with one finger bone. “Well. His physiology looks similar to some monster variations we’ve seen from other timelines, except for the fact that he’s so small. And without the ability to communicate, we don’t know how old he is so we don’t know if he’s a child or an adult or anywhere in between. What’s he been eating?”

“Whatever I put in front of him. He’s not picky, although he does seem to like chocolate the most.”

“Human food or monster food?”

“Both. Like I said, he’s not picky.”

“Any residue, or does he completely metabolize his food?”

“I haven’t noticed him using the bathroom, if that’s what you mean.”

Dr. Aster nodded.

“Okay. We’ve seen _that_ before, as well. Where does he sleep?”

“Follow me.” Hal made his way through the garage, up a flight of stairs, and into a small room with an unmade bed, a wooden cable reel being used as an end table, and assorted piles of debris. The mechanic pointed towards a smaller bed that appeared to be welded together from angle iron, with a number of pillows and towels on it. Above the miniature bed, a nightlight that looked a little like a Vulkin monster was plugged in.

“Little guy seems to be afraid of the dark. He was making all sorts of noises the first night. Gave him a flashlight as a stopgap, picked the Vulkin nightlight up the next morning. He also doesn’t seem to like being left alone for very long, cuz when I came back, all of my piles of junk had been rearranged into completely different piles of junk.”

“I didn’t know you lived up here.”

“I don’t actually. This is just a place for me to crash after all-nighters, if I don’t think I’m in a condition where I should be operating a motor vehicle. Having said that, I didn’t know how the guy would react if I tried to transport him in my truck, so I _have_ been staying here a lot.”

“I see.” Dr. Aster held up his hand and scanned the makeshift bed, but the purple light cut off as the scientist heard a crash from below, followed by some very loud and creative profanity.

“Oh boy, here we go.” Hal ran out of the room, down the stairs, and into the garage, where he saw… the small skeleton hanging off of Joe’s arm.

“So _this_ came out of nowhere.”

“Oh. Oh, right. I probably should have mentioned that.”

“Ya think?!” Joe’s eyes glowed with purple light, and Hal looked at the skeleton.

“Hey, wait a second-”

There was a buzzing sound and a flash of light and the skeleton dropped off of Joe’s arm with a yelp, and began running away from the scientist, trying to find something to hide behind. Hal sprinted past Joe, swooped down, picked up the skeleton, and rolled upright on his feet again just as Dr. Aster finally made it back into the garage.

“What the hell, Joe?!”

“Well, what was I supposed to do? Just spend the rest of my day with a bitey skeleton monster dangling off of my arm?!”

“That was your robot arm!”

“It’s wired into my nervous system! I can still feel pain, asshole!”

“You got bitten _once!_ He’s bitten me like five times and _not once_ have I had to electrocute him to get him to let go! If anyone is an asshole here, it’s-”

“OH MY GOD STOP YELLING FOR FIVE SECONDS!” Dr. Aster shouted to be heard over the arguing friends. “None of this is helping! Joe… have you isolated the origin dimension yet?”

“...not yet. Even if I hadn’t been interrupted, it didn’t sound like the rift was very big or lasted very long.”

“It wasn’t,” Hall confirmed. “It fit entirely inside that half the garage and it was open for less than a minute.”

“Alright then. Unless you want to claim salvage rights or something, we’ll take the debris that came through the portal back to All Fine Labs and shove it in the Resonator. See if anything comes up.”

“Knock yourself out. I think this little guy grabbed some of it and stowed it somewhere in the crash pad, but the rest of it’s all there.”

“Alright. I’ll send Zimmerman by with the truck later today.”

Hal followed the two scientists out of the garage, still carrying the small skeleton monster in his arms. As the two figures climbed on top of Joe’s motorcycle, Hal looked down at the skeleton.

Small bony hands were clutching the mechanic’s coveralls in a death grip, shaking all the time, as was the rest of the monster. Where the red glowing eye sockets had been pressed into the man’s chest, there were some damp patches.

Whatever, _whoever_ he was, he had been scared very badly.

“...it’s alright, buddy.” Hal backtracked through the garage, up the stairs to the improvised bedroom, and sat on the edge of the bed. One arm reached into a pocket, pulling out a smartphone, and a few dexterous thumb taps navigated threw a few menus, until the phone started playing some peculiar music that sounded like two or more songs had been combined together.

Slowly, the skeleton’s hands relaxed, and he looked up at Hal’s face.

“Hey there buddy. Sorry about all the yelling. And also the electricity I guess. Joe’s like the token asshole on Team Shop Class. But we needed to know where you came from. If only to make sure nobody tries to drag you back… but we’ll cross that Dimensional Bridge when we come to it. Wanna watch some YouTube videos?”

Hal adjusted his grip on both the monster and his phone, so that the skeleton was sitting on his knee and Hal was holding out the phone so they could both watch the screen at once.

After a few videos, the monster relaxed somewhat, and let go of Hal’s coveralls, staring at the screen of the phone. The mechanic grinned.

“High Quality Rips. Accept no substitutes.”


	3. Complimentary Snacks

Asriel stared at the miniature skeleton. The hole in the head, the all over red glow in the sockets, the literal tailbone, all of it was alien to his experience. The body language, on the other hand, was all too familiar.

“Bitey, this is my buddy Asriel. Asriel, Bitey.”

“Uhm. Hi.” Asriel held up a paw and waved. The small skeleton hesitantly held up its hands, moving them in specific ways…

A signed greeting.

“Oh.” Asriel held up his paws and started to move them as he spoke. “My name is Asriel Dreemurr.” Asriel paused to finger-spell his name in full. “It’s nice to meet you, Bitey.”

_Hello_ _A-S-R-I-E-L_ _. Nice meeting you._

“Hal’s told me a lot about you. I was almost getting jealous.”

_Sorry._

“...that wasn’t… I wasn’t accusing you. Just. Making conversation.”

“Okay!” Hal stood up. “While you two get acquainted, I’ll go check on the spinach puffs and other goodies in the oven!”

The mechanic vanished into the kitchen, leaving the skeleton and boss monster sitting in an eclectic living room filled with musical instruments and homemade furniture. Bitey held up his hands again.

_H-A-L is strange._

“Yeah, that’s true enough,” Asriel agreed.

_Why do you talk when you sign?_

“Oh. That’s just how I learned it. Signing and talking at the same time. They had classes at the Librarby.”

Bitey didn’t say anything more, and Asriel lapsed into silence. From the kitchen came the sound of clattering plates, pots, pans, and at one point a noise that sounded like a squeaking rubber duck bath toy. The noise was immediately followed by a muttered “What the heck?” and Asriel snorted.

The skeleton waved his hands, and Asriel returned his attention to Bitey. “Yes?”

_When I ask, H-A-L won’t tell me. Is anyone looking for me?_

“...I’m sorry?”

_I came from somewhere else. Is anyone from somewhere else here? Looking for me?_

“Uh...” Asriel shrugged. “If you mean, you came through a rift, there’s a lot of rifts in Ebott’s Wake. Connecting to a lot of places. It’s a big issue in town now. Also it makes people out of town nervous or angry. But they were nervous or angry when monsters showed up, so for us nothing changed.”

Bitey let his hands drop, and looked somewhat more nervous and uncomfortable than he had been before asking the question. Asriel reached up and scratched his ear.

“Where you came from, what was it like?”

Bitey held up his hands, but didn’t move them for a few seconds.

_It was. Happy._

“...is that why you wanted to know if somebody was looking for you? You want to go back?”

Bitey shook his head with so much emphasis Asriel was worried the little monster would shake himself out of his chair.

_Other people were happy. Not me. There were. Others. Like me but different. People would come and see them. And they would be happy. And they would take them home. Nobody came to see me. Nobody wanted to take me home. Nobody was happy to see me._

Asriel tilted his head. “You were at an orphanage?”

_I don’t know_ _what it was called_ _._

“Well, that’s what it sounds like.”

Bitey made a sound like a half grunt, half cough and began to sign again.

_H-A-L was trying to teach me to sign for a long time. I acted like I did not understand_ _when he started_ _. I was afraid he would ask me where I came from and try to send me back._

“...I don’t think you need to worry about that. Hal always roots for the underdog. So you knew how to sign before?”

_No. Or I don’t remember. I got hurt when the. You called it a rift. When the rift happened. I think I forgot some things. But what I remember is bad._

“Oh. I understand now-”

There was the sound of breaking glass from the kitchen, followed by a number of different bird songs all at once, and Hal began to swear.

“SUNNOVABITCH! Get outta here! This is a health code violation!”

Asriel stared at the doorway that lead to the kitchen, and almost started to stand up when Bitey waved at him again.

_How do you know H-A-L?_

“Oh, we… it’s hard to explain. We met up one day while watching people do stuff. And got to talking.” Asriel frowned and hesitated for a moment. “You said. Where you came from was happy for everyone except you.”

_Yes._

“I know what that’s like.”

Bitey stared at Asriel.

_What happened?_

“...a bad idea with good intentions. I got… hurt. Real bad. And woke up completely alone. And… I ended up being alone for a long time after that. It wasn’t great.”

Asriel stopped talking and stared off into space for a bit, until Bitey waved his hands again.

_What do you do?_

“Sorry, I don’t understand.”

_H-A-L works on cars and makes music. What do you do?_

“Oh. I’m a student. Still in school and all. I’m hoping to study astronomy in college, but life likes to pull the rug out from under me.” Asriel shrugged. “So we’ll have to wait and see.”

The last of the tweeting sounds from the kitchen stopped, and Asriel and Bitey turned to see Hal stumble into the living room, covered in scratches and with several feathers in his hair.

“Okay, I have good news and bad news. Bad news is the spinach puffs… didn’t turn out right. Puffed pastry is fragile, y’know. The good news is Pizza Time!” Hal pulled out his smartphone dramatically. “Who wants what toppings?”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by / based on / taking gross liberties with a comic by blehbybleh on tumblr, posted Sunday the 16th, 2018.
> 
> Direct link may or may not work following the 17th: https://blehbybleh.tumblr.com/post/181164406062
> 
> If not, rest assured that it was very sad, which directly inspired me to action.


End file.
